A fire burning in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area after 14 cars of a Union Pacific oil train derailed and four caught fire on Friday, June 3, 2016. The environmental advocacy group Columbia Riverkeeper provided this photo of the blaze near Mosier, Oregon.

A fire burning in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area after 14 cars of a Union Pacific oil train derailed and four caught fire on Friday, June 3, 2016. The environmental advocacy group Columbia

A fire burning in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area after 14 cars of a Union Pacific oil train derailed and four caught fire on Friday, June 3, 2016. The environmental advocacy group Columbia Riverkeeper provided this photo of the blaze near Mosier, Oregon.

A fire burning in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area after 14 cars of a Union Pacific oil train derailed and four caught fire on Friday, June 3, 2016. The environmental advocacy group Columbia

A fire burning in the Columbia River Gorge after a oil train derailed there Friday, June 3, 2016. The environmental advocacy group Columbia Riverkeeper provided this photo of the blaze near Mosier, Ore.

A fire burning in the Columbia River Gorge after a oil train derailed there Friday, June 3, 2016. The environmental advocacy group Columbia Riverkeeper provided this photo of the blaze near Mosier, Ore.

Photo: Columbia Riverkeeper

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The end comes to North America's biggest proposed oil-by-rail terminal

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The largest proposed oil-by-rail terminal in North America died a quiet death on Tuesday, as Port of Vancouver (Wash.) commissioners voted to terminate the lease of a project fought over for almost five years.

The death knell came last month when Gov. Jay Inslee rejected the project, which would have brought two long oil trains a day to a terminal on the Columbia River. The oil would have been shipped down the river to refineries along the West Coast.

Environmentalists furiously fought the terminal, culminating in a Vancouver Port Commission race last November that turned into a six-figure slugfest between the petroleum industry and the greens. The anti-terminal candidate won in a landslide.

The Vancouver Energy project was a joint venture of Tesoro, which already operates a refinery in Anacortes, and Savage. "Vancouver Energy brings vast economic benefits to Washington State," said its website.

"The Port and the people of Vancouver can now move forward and invest in infrastructure that reflects the community's values and needs," Rebecca Ponzio of Stand Up to Oil said Tuesday. "The Port's action removes concerns about a lengthy appeals process and recognizes the broad and deep public opposition to the project."

The carbon economy has suffered a series of setbacks in seeking to use Northwest ports for shipment of oil and coal.

The big proposed Gateway Pacific coal export terminal, at Cherry Point north of Bellingham, succumbed largely to opposition from the nearby Lummi Nation. An oil-by-rail terminal in Grays Harbor stirred controversy before it was abandoned last year. Proposed terminals up and down the Columbia River have been abandoned.

One project still alive is the Millennium Bulk Terminals proposed coal port at Longview. Its developers are appealing a decision by the state Department of Natural Resources to deny use of aquatic lands.

The projects were able to hire the best legal talent, the best public relations firms -- often boasting of their "green" credentials -- and line up labor support. But bottoms-up opposition has turned out hundreds of people at hearings.

One big oil project remains alive. The Canadian government has approved plans by Kinder Morgan, the big Houston-based pipeline builder, to triple capacity of the existing Trans-Mountain Pipeline, which runs from Edmonton, Alberta, to Burnaby, just east of Vancouver, B.C.

The completed pipeline would send up to 895,000 barrels of oil per day to a Burnaby port, from which it would be shipped out by tankers through international waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Salish Sea.

A new reformist government in British Columbia is fighting the project on the grounds of a potentially catastrophic oil spill.

Such a spill, and its impact on the aquatic life of the Columbia River, was on Gov. Inslee's mind last month when he gave thumbs down to Vancouver Energy. The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council had already recommended rejection of the oil terminal.

One significant factor: 14 cars of a Union Pacific oil train derailed in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area during the spring of 2016. Four of the cars caught fire. Oil was kept from the river, but it was a near-miss.

Vancouver Energy is donating its last lease payment to the Port of Vancouver -- $100,000 -- to local charities.

(SeattlePI.com writer Joel Connelly can be reached at 206-448-8160 or joelconnelly@seattlepi.com)

Columnist Joel Connelly has written about politics for the P-I since 1973.